Just starting out - well, for the second time. I started a few months ago, but stopped when I started bicycling. My bicycle broke, so until I can fix it, I realized I need to start again. This time I am planning to continue this as well for the future. I bought a screw-in door pull-up bar. Doorway is a little too short, but it will do for now. Previously I used a towel on the stair railing. I am thinking on off days to walk more also, which I started when I stopped bicycling.

My first day, last night, I stopped at 15 minutes. I'll try not to do that again. I logged it anyway, so to keep going ahead. I am only a little overweight, but very out of shape. I already lost about 5lbs, but my doctor wants me to loose about 10lbs more. My main motivation is recovering from leg pain my doctor says is from a dislocated disc. I showed him this workout plan, and he approved. I also plan to stretch more, which I was doing a lot a few months ago. This is turning into a goals post!

One question - how do you keep count of rounds? I posted 7 rounds, but it might have been 8. I got confused with the other counts.

So far it looks good and thanks for a good web site. Sorry if this sounds too much like rambling, but again I want to get started. Again :)

Thanks, Avraham

Last edited by Avraham on Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:50 am, edited 16 times in total.

Thank you for your replies. I used the pen and paper method and it worked great. It made keeping track of the time for day 2 easy and let me concentrate more on form. Last night I did L1D2.

Speaking of form, I printed out the workout and detail pages for home and when I reread them I noticed I was doing the squats wrong. I was going on my toes, which was helping my back recovery. I started to try to stay on my heels last night, and it was the first time doing squats I felt my quadriceps.

I also had a harder time with pull ups as I was trying to fully extend my arms and ended up assisting with my feet a few times. As I said previously, the doorway is short, and the bar is up to my shoulders standing, so I have to hold my feet up for pull ups. I hold with my palms facing me, so I guess they are really chin ups. Tried with my palms out, but couldn't even move.

Push ups are ok.

I knew I was out of shape, but, wow. I went fairly quickly last night, 8 minutes, but am not fully happy with my form yet. Next time I will rest longer between rounds and see if that helps with the pull ups. I only waited a minute or two last night. I also need to stretch a lot more! I guess I will be at level 1 a little longer than I first thought! Regardless of the above, I feel great today, and my leg/back feels better for it too!

I've been using a combination of them and they all have their strengths and weaknesses for certain people, so try what works for you.

I was going to stay at level 1 until I could complete the entire pull ups, but decided to move to level 2 to keep my progress going. I still need help with assisted pull ups, but I do see improvement each week.

Pull ups need a lot of work. I assisted on all of them. It didn't help it was midnight when I finally had time to exercise.

I saw a roll of grip liner in the store yesterday and thought that might make a good grip for the pull up bar. I tried it last night and it seemed ok, but after I finished I was experimenting with different pull ups and it seemed I was able to have a better grip on the bare metal bar.

Push ups were very slow also and I had to stop a couple times.

Squats were ok, but I heard a sound, like a click, from my left knee without any discomfort. I read today in a post, forget who's, that the feet shouldn't be straight but out at an angle a little. I'll try to keep that in mind next time.

I didn't even break a sweat like the other days, so I think I was mainly tired. Main thing was to keep going.

Progress won't always be steady and sometimes you'll have days where you're not as strong as you usually are. The key thing is to not let it disappoint you, keep your eye on the prize (I've always wanted to say that), and keep working at it. Sounds like you're making a great start.

As for foot positioning for squats, everyone is different so you'll have to try a few different foot positionings and spacings to find what's right for you. I've heard that to figure the optimal foot spacing you should jump from a height of a couple feet and see where your feet land. Do this a couple of times and you should get an idea of where your feet should be. Good luck.

Tue night I fell asleep on the floor stretching, so I pushed D2 to last night!

Last night L1D2 6:40

The first round I did two real push ups (well, chin ups) and the first one of the second round. The rest were negatives, 3-1. Waiting the full 3 minutes helped a lot!

I heard a clicking in my left knee again during squats. I had proper form with toes out, and tried different angles. Nothing hurt, just was annoying.

I am not sure when to do Day 3 since I am a day off. I won't be able to Fri night. Should I do it tonight, and have no break between D2 and D3, or wait until Sat night, and have no break between D3 and D1? I think I should continue tonight. I plan to continue on level 1 until I can do all pull ups, so I am not too concerned about D3 time. I am happy with my progress so far. I'm in no rush :)

Avraham wrote:I heard a clicking in my left knee again during squats. I had proper form with toes out, and tried different angles. Nothing hurt, just was annoying.

Even healthy knees can make noise. Sometimes people just starting out with a fitness program can develop this because of tight muscles. Your quads get tight and pull on the knee joint distorting it and causing noises. You should only be concerned if you have pain, swelling or a limited motion in the knee.

Are you warming up before you do your exercises and stretching after you're done? I always warm up first for about 10 minutes by doing some lunges, and squats, and jumping pull-ups, jumping jacks, push-ups, bear crawls, etc.

Last night my warm up was very short. Just going slowly through the exercises and a little stretching for a couple minutes. I did stretch a lot after. I probably could do a lot more before, especially as the knee making the noise is my left knee, and my left leg is the one with the pain. It is definitely tighter than my right. Although the pain is almost gone now. I will try to stretch more during warm up. I think you are right on the point. Thank you.

The first 2 pull ups were chin ups, everything else negatives 3-1. Ouch.
Push ups were also slow the second half.
Squats - I stretched 10 minutes before everything and watched my knee not to go over the toes and no clicking.
I stretched another 10 minutes after also. I think I need to stretch every day. I can't believe how tight I am.

I really pushed hard on the pull ups, that is, I really went slow on the negatives and with a lot of effort. I am feeling under the left arm pit some soreness, more than anywhere else. If it doesn't go away fast, I might change to body rows for the assists. I stretched my arms before also.

I put my log summary on the first post and plan to update it at least weekly.